742 Reviews of books

presence of a ‘fallen persona’ (153). The point of departure is Book III of ParadiseLost with ‘the tensions evident in Milton’s treatment of God’s justice’: these tensionsspring out of his ‘awareness of the potential “idolatry” of his poetic ambitions [which]leads him to deliberately create some of the “flaws” he has been criticized for’ (151). Here,Clutterbuck’s discussion focuses on anguish in terms of a subverted dialogue with God:this is seen to be expressed in the use of either the past tense or the distant future tense.

This brief review cannot do justice to the detailed analysis and complex responsescontained in Clutterbuck’s study. To some extent, the generosity of the topic and thenumber of questions raised in the course of Clutterbuck’s discussion may in themselvespose problems – for her reader may often feel that further clarification is requiredto make the arguments persuasive. This is especially true for the chapters on medievallyrics and Langland.

University of Wales, Bangor Raluca Radulescu

Michael J. Levin, Agents of Empire. Spanish Ambassadors in Sixteenth-Century Italy.Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2005. viii + 228pp. £22.95.ISBN 978-0-8014-4352-7.

Michael J. Levin describes the reality of Spanish diplomatic life and intrigues in thePapal States and the Venetian Republic in this important study of Spanish relationswith those areas of the Italian peninsula during the second half of the sixteenthcentury. A compelling aspect of this is how, in the early modern European period,diplomats had already assumed many of the functions that we see them fulfilling inour own times. Not only did they seek to advance the policies and interests of theSpanish monarchs, but they also acted as spies and as conduits to transmit culturalartefacts and artefact producers from the regions in which they operated to theirmetropolis, especially, in this case, to Philip II’s Escorial.

Levin’s central thesis, that his close study of Spanish diplomats in Italy in thisperiod destroys the common academic belief that Spain absolutely dominated thepeninsula and imposed a ‘pax hispanica’ in the second half of the sixteenth century,is, at best, overstated. In the first instance, his representation of the views of suchhistorians as Fernand Braudel, Eric Cochrane, and Henry Kamen is flawed becausehe quotes them very selectively, and even then must make a considerable linguisticleap to portray them as claiming that Spain absolutely dominated Italy. There isdefinite lack of scholarship here, perhaps owing to the fact that this text was originallya doctoral thesis. In one instance, Levin even attributes words to Eric Cochrane thatactually belong to Julius Kirschner (2).

In the second place, despite Levin’s assertions, there was some sort of ‘pax his-panica’ during the second half of the sixteenth century, at least compared to theperiod before it and the period after. Of course, there were political problems and,of course, the Spanish crown did not always get its own way. Popes and Venetians andthe plethora of noble families who ruled the myriad regional political entities thatconstituted the Italian peninsula of the time all had their own agendas, ambitionsand fears. Spain was just one, albeit the most important, ingredient in a political stew

Reviews of books 743

that many sought to cook to their own taste. That there were no significant wars inthe peninsula between the peace treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559 and 1598 whenconflict broke out between Spain, France and various Italian states over the northernterritories of Saluzzo would seem to me to be significant. The duration and natureof the ‘pax hispanica’ can be debated, but that there was a relatively lengthy periodof peace cannot be denied. It certainly stands in stark contrast to the preceding sixtyyears when France and Spain fought for dominance in the region, giving rise to suchbarbarities as the sack of Rome in 1527.

A major problem with Levin’s analysis is that he does not adequately portray thepolitical, let alone the economic or social, realities of the peninsula of the time. Heis reluctant to agree with Italian historians such as Benedetto Croce that this periodsaw the birth of Italian nationalism, but he also has a tendency to see Italy as a whole,as though it already existed. His book lacks the regional analysis that can be foundin, for example, Gregory Hanlon (Early Modern Italy, 1550–1800, New York, St Mar-tin’s Press, 2000). Thus, while he raises the issues of imperialism and hegemony,Levin provides no sustained analysis of them. He argues that Spain came very closeto imposing its will on the world, but the nature of that will is not clarified, nor thenature of the Spanish empire as a whole. Levin’s story is therefore a narrowly politicalone. It is about diplomats seeking to persuade political elites in independent statesto support the political and military objectives of their master. There is little attentiongiven to economic policies and practices, or even to ideology outside of religious differencesin the broadest of categories. Levin leaves the reader with more questions than answerswhen it comes to Spanish objectives and Italian realities. Certainly more could havebeen said about the antipathy between Spaniards and the peoples that inhabited theItalian peninsula, which may have helped in the formation of an Italian consciousness.

Agents of Empire is an excellent account of the activities of Spanish diplomats in thePapal States and in the Venetian Republic in the second half of the sixteenth century.Based on solid archival research, it reveals the fears of these diplomats in having todeal with foreign political elites who had their own agendas, and the steps they took,both legal and illegal, to further the interests of the Spanish monarchs. The text isless successful in fulfilling some of its grander themes such as an explication of thefailure of Spanish imperialism or the examination of the rise of Italian protonation-alism, and its claims to demolishing current historical understandings of Spanishdomination of Italy are overstated. That said, the smaller picture of diplomats inaction is both fascinating and instructive.

University of New South Wales Peter Ross

Johanna Eleonora Petersen, The Life of Lady Johanna Eleonora Petersen, Writtenby Herself. Translated and edited by Barbara Becker-Cantarino. (The OtherVoice in Early Modern Europe) University of Chicago Press, 2005. 168pp.$18.00. ISBN 0-226-66299-3.

Johanna Eleonora Petersen, née von Merlau, was born in Frankfurt in 1644. ‘RadicalPietist’ and writer of fourteen works of mysticism and Biblical exegesis, her autobiography